ECSTASY SMUGGLERS TURNING TO MAIL

Customs Finds Ground-up Rave Drug At Postal Depot

European-based Ecstasy makers are now trying to smuggle the potentially
lethal designer drug into Canada by grinding the tablets into powder,
Canada Customs officials say. At least four shipments of Ecstasy powder
have been nabbed by customs agents at the international mail depot near
Pearson International Airport since the first week of September.

It's the first time that Ecstasy powder has been discovered in shipments
from Europe, customs officials say.

Customs officials say drug makers, primarily in the Netherlands, are
crushing the pills and hiding the powder inside picture frames and birthday
cards to avoid detection.

``This is something new . . . we've never seen this before,'' Canada
Customs spokesperson Mark Butler said last week. ``The suspicion is that
perhaps those sending it thought it was easier to conceal and wouldn't be
detected by our x-ray machines as easy as the pills or tablets would.''

Ecstasy powder worth about $100,000 was among the illegal narcotics with an
estimated value of more than $11 million seized at Pearson and the
international mail depot in the past 12 weeks.

Altogether, 764 drug seizures of all types that police say are worth $144
million have been confiscated to date - about $20 million more than this
same time last year. That was a year that ended with a record $166.5
million in seizures.

The big jump in drug seizures has come from Ecstasy, Butler said.

``Not only has the amount gone up but so has the frequency of smugglers
trying to get it into Canada,'' Butler said. ``Not only is it coming in
with regular passengers but we're also seeing it in the mail and in the cargo.

``Last year, we had only seven Ecstasy seizures worth $328,000 but so far
this year we've uncovered 31 different Ecstasy shipments worth about $14.5
million.''

The first powdered Ecstasy shipments were found Sept. 6 in two hollowed-out
picture frames. Each was stuffed with about 200 grams of the narcotic worth
$28,000.

Most seized foreign drugs are found at Pearson, but customs officials say
mail seizures have been rising since mid-August.

Although it's usually found in pills or tablets, users of powdered Ecstasy
can snort it or dissolve and inject it.

Ecstasy's typical effects include euphoria and mild hallucinations, but at
this year's inquest into the death of Allen Ho, who died after taking it, a
toxicology expert said one pill can kill someone with a sensitivity to it.
The drug, popular at raves, has claimed more than a dozen lives in Ontario
over the past two years.

The past 2 1/2 months have seen more than 170 drug seizures at Pearson and
the depot.